Aqua Vitae
by Aquarean
Summary: It was an age of war. Everything began in a battle, from how Juvia the mercenary took over an important town of her client to how she had switched sides. She grown weary of battle, never had a reason to fight. But when she found Gray, well, he became the only thing she cared, like a drunkard and his Aqua Vitae.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Juvia watched the large town from afar, the town that she would take with the soldiers of Fiore a few hours later. The rain clouds were gathering and everyone at the camp were preparing their weapons. Juvia couldn't help but sigh, wishing that she wouldn't have to fight. The thought of slaughtering innocents were enough to make her shiver.

But then, it was her job to kill as a mercenary of the band Phantom Lord. She bore the title "The Rain Sniper", as her proficiency with a sniper rifle allowed her to snipe her enemies from afar even at heavy deluges, when vision was prohibited and the bullets couldn't fly as far as they could. But then, she preferred to be called the rain woman, as she had claimed it to be more 'humble'.

Juvia never thought that she would become a soldier. Back in her older days she was a quiet, gloomy girl. She was always avoided by her peers, and never had a family. Until the day she was fourteen, a gang of bandits raided her town and she was one of the few survivors there. Taken in by Gajeel, she began to learn gunnery and two years later, able to participate in battles. But then, most of the time they were hired by mayors and village chiefs to protectthe innocents from bandits, this was her first time fighting an army.

 _Still, it was the right thing to do, s_ he reminded herself. King Jose had hired all of them to help settle the revolution of the citizens towards the kingdom. Their first task was to take the town of Magnolia, a town rich of resources to supply the army.

"Lady Juvia, it is time to battle." One of the soldiers reported, noticing that rain had begun to fall. Juvia only nodded, took up her sniper rifle, and said, "Try not to hurt the innocents."

 _She was still too kind,_ Gajeel thought, as he watched Juvia took aim, and then fired at the legs of another enemy soldier. The bullet found its mark, decapacitated him, but not enough to kill him. The battle had begun an hour, and as the time passed by, the morale of the soldiers of Fiore grew more. The resistance quickly retreated, leaving some of the soldiers to cover their escape.

Soon, the soldiers of Fiore successfully retook Magnolia. But as they cheered loudly over their sweet victory, Juvia watched the corpse of the deceased soldiers poignantly.

The soldiers were celebrating their victory at a bar in the town. Bottles of liquor and food were seen everywhere. There were three girls serving them, two with white hair while the other has red, long, straight hair. Juvia sat at a corner, wearing a long, blue dress. She was eating her food when one of the barmaids approached her.

"Hello there! My name is Mirajene," the girl with long, white hair introduced herself merrily. "Would you like some drinks?"

Juvia shook her head, "No, thank you."

"OK then," Mirajene smiled, "By the way, you dress differently compared to the soldiers." Juvia looked at her questioningly, not knowing what she meant. "You are not wearing any badge symbolizing the soldiers of Fiore." Upon hearing Mirajene's explanation, Juvia quickly glanced at the outfit the soldiers had with a surprised look.

"Juvia never noticed it before." True enough, the soldiers were all wearing identical badges on their chest. "Maybe because Juvia is a mercenary so they didn't give badges."

"You're a mercenary?"

"Yes, along with Gajeel-kun," Juvia smiled, "We were tasked to took over this town from the resistance, who was wrecking havoc on Fiore."

"I see" Mirajene frowned, but went unnoticed by Juvia "I shall go back to work then, goodbye." Juvia happily nodded, and watched Mirajene joined the red-haired barmaid.

"So, what did you found?" The red-haired barmaid asked Mirajene with a solemn look.

"Well, Erza, they had hired mercenaries, that explains why their army became so strong." She whispered back. Erza nodded and begun to think about something, "Do you think it's a good idea to hire mercenaries for ourselves too?"

"Well, I have other plans." Mira smiled mischieviously, then return to attend to the soldiers.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Juvia had thought she had done the right thing by joining the army of Fiore.

But now, she didn't think so.

The day after they had liberated Magnolia from the resistance army, two officers had arrived from the capital of Fiore. They claimed that they had been sent by King Jose to "collect funds to resupply the army". Juvia had doubted that King Jose had made a wise decision. They had just took over Magnolia, the townsfolk needed time to adjust back to their original routine from the days they lived when the town was still occupied by the resistance army. However, she said nothing regarding the matter.

Juvia can only watch as the officers, along with some soldiers, visited each and every houses and shops to collect money from them. Those who can afford it paid them wordlessly, but those who don't were beaten up. Juvia wished that she could stop them, but she can't.

After all, she was just a mercenary.

Three women were inside a room filled with various books and files. They were scanning over at files after files containing profiles of mercenaries in Fiore.

One of the trio had blue hair tied into a ponytail. She was wearing a brown tank top and black pants. She was rifling through one of the thick files when she saw Juvia's profile.

"Lucy! This woman had matched the description Mira gave us!" She exclaimed.

Her blonde petite friend immediately rushed to her side. She had blue eyes, a beautiful face and a voluptuous body. She read the profile shown by her blue-haired friend and nodded her head. "I think this is it, Evergreen, we found the profile of the mercenary Mira was talking about."

The third of the trio, having long, straight blonde hair and a tall and slender figure joined them. She read the profile and nodded her head in agreement. "Let's see what we can learn about them, good job Levy." She complimented the woman with blue hair who nodded her head with a smile.

"Juvia felt sorry for them."

"Hm?" Mira grinned a little. Juvia was in her pub, even though it was not open for business yet.

"The townsfolk, they were bullied!" Juvia cried out, "Thought Juvia did the right thing, Juvia was wrong!"

"Frankly, yes you did not do the right thing." Mirajene looked at her solemnly, " Our lives became harder since King Jose ruled Fiore, he kept extorting money from the people and spent them all on luxuries." Juvia stared at her wide eyed, not believing what she had heard.

"Not only him, the other members of royal family all did the same thing, some are even worse." Mirajene continued, "Raping women, kidnapping children and make them their personal salve. Basically they made our lives a living hell."

"So the resistance army was actually trying to free the people from King Jose's clutches?" Juvia queried.

Mira nodded.

"Juvia felt sorry."

"Don't be, after all, you were just following orders." Juvia can only nod at Mira's statement. Mira walked towards the door, she was about to flip the sign on the door to "open" before she turned around and asked Juvia one question of hers.

"Juvia, if you were given a chance, would you join the resistance instead?"

Juvia looked at Mira, her question had made her thinking. After a while, she responded.

"Juvia will."

"Phantom Lord, consisting of 60 people, had been participating battles around this land." Evergreen reported. After research was done on Phantom Lord, she had immediately held a meeting to discuss a strategy to counter the new ally of the Army of Fiore.

"So they came here because they were hired by King Jose." A young man with blonde hair and a scar on his right eye queried.

"Yes, Laxus." Evergreen smiled at him before continued, " only a protion of their forces were sent here, in the assault on Magnolia yesterday, two person had played a key role on their victory. Then, Evergreen distributed copies of the profiles of Gajeel and Juvia.

'Gajeel Redfox,having proficiency with multiple types of weapons ranging from pistols to cannons, basically a jack-of-all-trades. Not to mention that he was also experienced in battle."

"Sounds like a tough adversary." An short old man, wearing a white striped shirt with an orange jacket commented.

"Indeed, Master Makarov, the other person is called Juvia Lockser, a.k.a the Rain Sniper."

"Why is it so?" Laxus asked, frowning.

"Well, it is said that her accuracy and the trajectory of her bullet did not diminish when raining, if not heightened."

"But doesn't that mean that she'll be useless when we engage her in other weather conditions?"

"Yes, but the odd thing was that in most of her battles it was always raining, sometimes in unusual circumstances. For instance-" Evergreen paused to distribute some photos that had shown Juvia, dressed in her blue soldier outfit and Russian Cossack hat and holding a sniper rifle. She was standing underneath a tree at a small village.

"This village was known for having years of drought. But it had rain for the first time when Juvia had a battle with 20 bandits who were raiding it. She managed to defeat them alone." Evergreen explained.

The atmosphere in the meeting room immediately became tense. Finally, Makarov speak up.

"So, did you have a plan yet?"

"Well, Mirajene had contacted us recently," Evergreen pushed her glasses, "She intended to persuade them to join us."

Laxus raised an eyebrow, "I doubt that it will work, she might even put herself into danger."

Makarov nodded in agreement,"No easy feat," he said, 'But let's let her try anyway."


End file.
